“You know what’s great about this?”

At the mini love bomb I attended a couple of weeks ago, a woman named Susan identified herself as an extreme optimist. I was instantly envious. Although I am three-quarters filled with optimism and gratitude, I still wish I were a person for whom a smile is my natural expression. Susan had that quality.

She told a story in which she and her partner were out riding their bikes when it began to rain. She was riding behind her partner as they hustled to get home when she yelled out, “You know what’s great about this?”, and before she could continue, her partner turned to her and said, “You know what’s great about you? THAT!”

When she finished talking, I wrote down on a note card “You know what’s great about this?” because I knew it was something I wanted to take home with me. It’s a phrase I want to teach my kids. It’s a habit I want to adopt.

Car battery died again! You know what’s great about that? The exercise I got walking Scarlett to preschool.

My husband on a business trip! You know what’s great about that? I can make scrambled eggs for dinner without wondering if he’s in the mood for that.

In my professional life as a freelance writer, marketing consultant, and blog publisher, together with Heather, I am pretty good about allowing for failed experiments, identifying the lessons learned, and being willing to try something new just to find out if it is a worthwhile endeavor. You know what’s great about that? Heather and I have a collective confidence that whatever we try will be good enough to serve some purpose, whether it’s entertaining our readers, developing a new relationship, or earning us money.

When it comes to the minutiae of life, it’s a little harder for me. My kids have more than 30 small stuffed animals of a particular brand that they insist on storing in a very particular way that makes me crazy. You know what’s great about that? I’m not really sure.

Will you practice with me? Whatever struggle or annoyance is on your mind today, can you give me one response to this question?

RookieMoms.com co-founder Whitney lives with her husband, son, and daughter in the San Francisco Bay Area where she writes about parenting, crafts, and activities that moms can do with babies in tow. She and Heather also publish 510Families.com, a site for East Bay parents and are the authors of The Rookie Mom's Handbook and Stuff Every Mom Should Know.

You know what’s great about that?
That your kids are creative enough to come up with their own system, and independent enough to insist on using it.
And that you are able to let go and respect what they want even though it’s not the way you would do it.

For you: You know what’s great about that? Your kids are strong-minded, independent kids, practicing making their own choices and standing up for themselves, organizing their own worlds.

For me: We’re about to put our house on the market, and I DO NOT WANT to, I’m pretty heartbroken about it. You know what’s great about that?
If it sells, we’ll be freer of the worry of paying that mortgage, my husband can start his own practice. And I’ll get practice in letting go, and not clinging to material things but understanding that a home is not about the building.

I am not even a little bit of an optimist, let alone an extreme one. But I need to practice doing this. I’m going to write it down and put it by my computer, to remind me. Thanks for this.

You know what’s great about this? Susan is my partner and I get to live with her everyday!

She is also known to say, (when things seem to be going wrong) – good?, bad?, we don’t know yet?

Everything that greets us has two sides to it. Its your choice which side to look at, its really good to surround yourself with people like Susan who lean towards the “you know what’s great about this side of things”

I’m proud that this morning when I was trying to fix breakfast with no water (water company working on the lines), I thought, “ooo! We can eat out for dinner! Yay!” I like to remember moments like these too, because it doesn’t always come easily.
How about the things that drive you crazy with kids gives you a chance to practice letting go. Since I’ve decided about 90% of what I work towards is letting go in one form or another, it’s a great thing to practice.

This is a timely reminder for me. I was in bed all weekend with the stomach flu and I’ve been feeling sorry for myself for the obvious reasons and also because I missed out on a rare, fun long weekend with my family. You know what’s great about that? Er…um…my husband did most of the laundry? That’s a pretty good one, I think.

We own our own business and about 9 mos. ago a client changed a process which negatively effected us – we hung in there with them as they had been a client for 25 years – even thought we weren’t making any money with them. You know what’s great about that? through contacts made and developed because of this change – we are realizing a 30 year dream to sell our company and have an exit strategy that is unheard of in this economy. The buyer is one of those contacts that we never would have made if our client hadn’t made that change!

I am typically the type to have very low expectations so I wont be disappointed when things go wrong…..because they frequently do. But this also makes me a pessimist who is married to an optimist. I’m gonna tell my husband about this and request that he asks me when things go wrong to remind me that I can’t change it anyway, and I might as well be reminded of the “great” things associated with bad situations. Thanks for the tip!!

My kid woke up puking this morning. Know what’s great about that? I don’t in any way feel compelled to go outside to play when we have an excessive heat advisory… And also I don’t feel compelled to make an actual dinner, since he’s not going to eat anyway. Score!

Aww, Love what @Angie said…
You know what’s great about me losing my marbles over this move? It will all be over soon and we’ll be in our new house.

You know what’s great about a total fixer? We get to make it what we want?

You know what’s great about being out of money before we can make all the improvements? We get to model for our children making priorities and sacrifices and we get the bonus of having fun projects to look forward to!

You know what’s great about the movers postponing until Monday? We can play all weekend in our new empty house and do beyblades on the hardwood and curl up with iPads in sleeping bags. Who needs furniture?!

I could go on and on. I really need this! You know what’s great about you? This! Maybe I’ll try again to get us delicious sandwiches today.

You know whats great about that? Well, since the mini love bomb I have been practicing with this daily. The biggest challenge for me currently is being in a sandwich of making decisions for my aging parent and my own (young child dominant) family. In a recent visit to see my mother, I felt trapped, saddened, lost and hopeless about her worsening condition. We were in the kitchen talking and I snapped to attention-“Mom, you know what is great about this? You are alive, you have people who are here right now to help you, you don’t have cancer, you look rocket hot and still have teeth…..etc.” The next day when she was complaining about something she asked, “what was that you said last night? You know what’s great about this?…..” Actually, this is contagious in the best way!

[…] At the love bomb that I wrote about a few months ago, we were asked to introduce our superpowers. I have already shared Susan’s on this blog. She is the woman who said that she is known for her optimism, for saying , “You know what’s great about this?” […]

The Rookie Moms™

Heather (L) & Whitney (R) are BFFs who wanted to have more fun with their babies. [read more]